Which Colleges and Universities Produce the Most Small Business Owners?

Editorial Staff

College marketing materials often focus on their big-name alumni, including those who have
gone into leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies and international brand names.

But small businesses are the engine rooms of the American economy. Companies of under
500 employees account for 99.9% of all businesses, employing 45.9% of the population,
creating the majority of new jobs and generating trillions of dollars in revenue. For most
budding entrepreneurs, a school that has produced a small number of celebrity bosses
should be less impressive than one that demonstrably prepares students for the realities of
the entrepreneurial path and the nitty-gritty of business life — whether it’s running a family
business or launching a startup.

To identify America’s small business factories, online business lender OnDeck used LinkedIn
data and calculated the number of small business owners per 10,000 graduates for each of
the 436 top colleges in U.S. News’ National College Rankings.

Methodology

OnDeck used LinkedIn data to calculate the number of small business owners per 10,000
graduates for each of the 436 top colleges in US News’ National College Rankings.

First, they used LinkedIn filters to record the total number of graduates from each college
overall and the number from each college with the current title of “owner” or “co-owner” of
a company of fewer than 500 employees (the Small Business Administration’s general
definition of a small business).

Combining both values allowed them to calculate the current number of small business
owners per 10,000 graduates from each college.